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Update: First gay couple prepares to be wed in Sacramento

[The first couple to show up at the Sacramento County Clerk’s office Friday were Sacramentans Nicola Simmersbach and Diana Luiz, who have been together seven years.

“I didn’t think this would happen today,” Simmersbach said. “This isn’t really what we planned on wearing but we’re here.”

“We’ve been fighting on the Capitol steps for this moment,” Luis said….

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/06/28/5532445/first-gay-couple-prepares-to-be.html#storylink=cpy

Offices will be open until 7:00 PM tonight and closed over the weekend. They are suggesting that anyone who wants to get married on Monday register online first to speed up the process. See HERE.

Update: At Governor Jerry Brown’s to urging to expedite the issue, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has lifted the ban on Gay Marriage in California.

http://www.kcra.com/news/federal-appeals-court-samesex-marriages-can-resume-in-calif/-/11797728/20766008/-/ymudxi/-/index.html

With the earlier directive by Brown to all 58 Counties to start issuing licenses, the 25 day wait till the court ruled has been eliminated.

Marriages could start as early as today!

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Update: Gov. Jerry Brown just made it official:

http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2013/06/jerry-brown-tells-california-counties-to-issue-gay-marriage-licenses.html

Update: The SCOTUS decisions have effectively removed the obstacle of gay marriage in the immigration bill. No wonder John Boehner was so upset. As one of our friends said this morning ” there really are no words” for this historic event.

After the Affirmative action “horribliness” yesterday, SCOTUS did something right today!

This is Gay Pride Week in San Francisco and the city is really going to have something to celebrate.

[..The Supreme Court decision appears to pave the way for same-sex marriages to resume in California by leaving intact the initial district court ruling against Prop. 8. More legal maneuvering on that issue is likely, though, since some counties in the Golden State weren’t covered by that initial case, and may choose to ignore the ruling.

The DOMA decision is likely to have the most immediate impact, awarding all couples legally married in the states that permit same-sex marriage hundreds of employment, tax and other benefits that had been denied to them under federal law…]

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From a feminist’s viewpoint, it makes no sense to consider a woman, (or even a man) for senatorial candidacy who expresses contempt over it’s appellation. That’s what Carly Fiorina is doing when she attempts to belittle Barbara Boxer’s senatorial exchange in the recent September ad.

Must we again remind ourselves that job titles reflect our experience, value, and job worth? One of the very things that keep us on the low end of the job scale monetarily is our inability to properly identify ourselves. Fiorina knows this. She has had no trouble identifying herself as former CEO of Hewlett Packard.

In this botched ad, it appears that Fiorina was attempting to spotlight Boxer’s 28 years as a public servant as being too long, and Boxer’s correction of General Michael Walsh, who’s use of “Ma’am” was inappropriate, even if allowed by protocol. The problem is, the way in which Boxer’s 28 years experience is addressed induces thought. It makes you think of what she has accomplished, rather than her being out of touch. And, does anyone really think that the military should be above correction?

Republican feminists have to be cringing over this ad. Taken along with the earlier hair remarks, Fiorina couldn’t have skewered herself better if she tried. Who even cares what her platform is, when she takes her campaign strategy cues from rabid bat misogynist trolls?

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Geena Davis and Alexandra Gleysteen have both been appointed to the State’s “Commission on the Status of Women”, by Governor Schwarzenegger. The appointments are pending CA Senate confirmation.

I’ll just say to whomever is editing Wikipedia for these two, Geena’s page definitely needs revising to better reflect her activities as a woman’s advocate. Alexandra needs inclusion. Better bios were found on the “appointed” link.

They certainly deserve Senate confirmation.

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If you haven’t yet done so, The Gray Panthers urge you to SPREAD THE WORD to reinstate and extend unemployment insurance and contact you Senator TODAY:

In Unemployment Benefits Extension, a Logistical Headache for States

Overtaxed State Agencies Struggle to Keep Up

By ANNIE LOWREY 7/19/10 6:00 AM

[People seeking unemployment benefits wait in the lobby of an Employment Development Department office in California. (EPA/ZUMAPRESS.com)

On Tuesday, the Senate plans to vote on a federal extension of unemployment benefits, blocked by Senate Republicans for an unprecedented two months. The swearing-in of Carte Goodwin, the temporary replacement for the late Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), will give Democrats the crucial 60th vote to overcome a GOP filibuster and restore unemployment insurance to 2.5 million Americans….]

http://washingtonindependent.com/91871/in-unemployment-benefits-extension-a-logistical-headache-for-states

For more on Carte Goodwin try HERE and HERE.

The DOL has published a list of products we all want to think twice about purchasing. However, as you read the list you will see some of the difficulties in following through on this kind of a determination.  Take cotton for example; Benin, Burkina Faso, China, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan are on the no-no list. Where did your last tee shirt come from? Do we have anywhere near enough inspection? See the list HERE:

ILAB News Release: [07/19/2010]

Contact Name: Gloria Della Clarisse Young
Phone Number: (202) 693-8666 or x5051
Release Number: 10-0914-NAT

US Labor Department publishes updated list of products made with forced or indentured child labor

[WASHINGTONThe U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs today announced the publication of a final list of products that federal contractors must certify under Executive Order 13126 are not produced with forced or indentured child labor. The list will appear in the July 20 edition of the Federal Register….]

http://www.dol.gov/ILAB/regs/eo13126/main.htm

As an older adult, around age 55?, my father had Whooping Cough and let me tell you, it wasn’t fun.  It is very hard to breath during the coughing attacks. He thought that he had been vaccinated as a child, leading us to believe that the vaccine had lost effectiveness. Check with your doctor about vaccines. Personally, if I were traveling to CA in the future, I’d check with my doctor about getting the vaccine as well.

Vaccine urged as whooping cough epidemic grows

By Bobby Caina Calvan

bcalvan@sacbee.com

Published: Monday, Jul. 19, 2010 – 12:37 pm

Last Modified: Monday, Jul. 19, 2010 – 1:02 pm

[State health officials today urged more Californians to get vaccinated for whooping cough, as the disease grew to epidemic proportions…]

http://www.sacbee.com/2010/07/19/2900460/vaccine-urged-as-whooping-cough.html

Border security and Immigration reform are two separate issues.  The former is used as a ploy to prevent the latter from happening. Ruben Navarrette shows how the two issues rotate around each other:

Politicians posture over U.S.-Mexico border

Ruben Navarrette Jr.

[“What do you mean I’m out of money?” says the bumper sticker. “I still have checks left!” In the immigration debate, some folks use the same logic to raise the issue of border security.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/06/29/EDAP1E6NQ5.DTL

You may remember that President Obama issued an Executive Order on May 22, 2010 directing the institution of a “ National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling”. The Commission released it’s final report today.  I guess it will be my evening read:

Final Recommendations of the Ocean Policy Task Force Announced

Posted by Phil Larson on July 19, 2010 at 02:23 PM EDT

Obama Administration officials today released the Final Recommendations of the Ocean Policy Task Force, which would establish a National Policy for the Stewardship of the Ocean, Coasts, and Great Lakes (National Policy) and create a National Ocean Council (NOC) to strengthen ocean governance and coordination.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/ceq/initiatives/oceans

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WAPO is commemorating Veteran’s Day, with an article on Tammy Duckworth and the new generation at the VA.

Today’s Christian Science Monitor’s article discusses new attempts to help homeless vets. I have to say I don’t think there has been this much Federal activity in this direction since Governor Reagan. You may remember him. He’s the one that did so much in aid of the population’s growth in CA when he shut down thousands of hospital beds as a cost cutter.

President Obama was busy speechifying at Arlington, as he did yesterday in Fort Hood, Texas.

New Hampshire’s Peterboro, the company that has been making USAn made baskets since 1854, is offering a few patriotically themed baskets in celebration of Veterans Day. You know the ones; they make picnic, pie and bicycle baskets.

My hometown is having a parade in just a few minutes, and I’ve been searching for my display flag, the one my mother gave me, all day. I haven’t been able to find it since we packed a few things into storage.

Elsewhere around the Bay area, these VA events are happening.

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On Oct 30 Barack Obama proclaimed November as National Native American Heritage Month. (NNAHM)

Indigenous peoples in Alaska are giving informative lectures on various tribes and nations.

As well, in Alaska, the Juneau Empire is featuring daily, a different member of the Juneau native community.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation is taking applications for their 2010 list of Endangered Native American Places.

The Library of Congress has put together an interview and web page on Keith M Little, Navajo code talker during WWII.

The National Park Service has nicely featured in their National Register of Historic Places, properties relating to “American Indian Heritage Month”.

Mills College, in Oakland, CA is commemorating the month with various activities. The next will be an evening of music and dinner on November 19th.

WaterturtleWeaver has a new 2010 ethnobotany calandar on sale, that looks scrumptious! The project was a cooperative effort including well known artist-ethnologist Deborah Small and photographer-weaver Rose Ramierz.

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Just in case you didn’t get  enough of 2008, scientists are going to give you a little more – one second more, to help ring in the new leap year of 2009. Great. (more…)

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No texting! Just last year, the new California law went into effect prohibiting us from talking on our cell phones and driving concomitantly. We drove over the border, from Reno in July, on the day the last law went into effect, CHP’s were everywhere and had lines of people pulled over. However, had CA forgotten to include all those obsessive texters in that law.The state has now corrected that oversight. So, be prepared as you are driving across state lines for New Years. 

(more…)

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A first look at how the counties voted and a chance to compare presidential votes with those of Prop 8 and others.

(more…)

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Humboldt County is one of the lesser-populated counties in California; at around 126,500 people. It doesn’t take many missing votes to realize something is amiss. If you thought the flap about voting irregularities had died down, and you haven’t read the BradBlog yet this week, trundle right on over there:

‘Humboldt Transparency Project’ Reveals Diebold, U.S. Federal E-Voting Scam

State certification of votes is to be final on December 13th, then, we will all know who really won the November 2008 elections, and by how much in California. When does your state certify?

I Own My Vote, PUMA, The Denver Group, Just Say No Deal

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